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Autobiography/Memoir Plot 29: A Love Affair With Land Allan Jenkins 2016 Personal narrative blended with a gardener’s log-book, in Plot 29 Allan Jenkins, the Editor of Observer Food Monthly, organically weaves together memoir and memory from his childhood to the recent past. He discusses his time in foster care and the importance of that to his experience as a gardener in adulthood. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir The Women Who Raised Me Victoria Rowell 2007 The Women Who Raised Me is the remarkable story of Victoria Rowell's jouney out of the foster care system to attain the American Dream--and of the unlikely series of women who lifted, motivated, and inspired her along the way. From Agatha Armstead--a black Bostonian who was Victoria's longest-term foster mother and first noticed her spark of creativity and talent--to Esther Brooks, a Paris-trained prima ballerina who would become her first mentor at the Cambridge School of Ballet--The Women Who Raised Me is a loving, vivid portrait of all the women who would help Victoria transition out of foster care and into New York City's wild worlds of ballet, acting, and adulthood. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir The Golly in the Cupboard Phil Frampton 2004 Born in the seaside village of St Agnes, Cornwall in 1953, Phil Frampton wanted to discover the reasons behind his abandonment as a child. For several decades he was unable to unwrapt he mysteries. In 1999, Phil finally got to access official records kept on him as a child. Using these records and letters, Phil unfolds an odyssey of joy, rejection, love, racism, drama, abuse, intrigue and deception, and records his reaction to his discoveries. External Website

Authors H Stone Girl ➝ Cuckoo in the Nest ➝ Notice Me!: A Barnardo Child's Scrapbook of Memories : 1946 to 1961 ➝ Home Bird ➝ Thicker Than Water ➝ Back to Top

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Orphan Stories | Encyclopedia.com Anon 2000 Orphan stories: works of children's literature that either feature orphaned children as protagonists or that examine orphans and child abandonment from the perspective of a young child. External Website

Fiction by Care Experienced authors The Widow's Children Paula Fox 1976 The novel begins when Laura finds out her mother has died and concludes with the burial of the old woman. In between is a long night of a gathering to “see off” Laura and her husband Desmond before they embark on a voyage to Africa. The evening begins in Laura and Desmond’s hotel room as they have pre-dinner drinks and then moves to a restaurant. All are dependent on alcohol to get through the event, playing their various roles of the wag, the supplicant, the outrageous, and the drunk. Included in the gathering is Laura's 29 year old daughter, Clara. Clara didn't grow up with Laura, however, she grew up with Laura's mother, Alma, but Laura decides that Clara shouldn't be told about her grandmother's death. External Website

Performing Arts Composer Erik Satie French composer and writer, Erik Satie (1866-1925), was in kinship care from the age of 6 for 6 years. Erik was born in Honfluer, in France’s Normandy region, about 198km north-west of Paris. His father, Alfred, was French and his mother, Jane, was English. When Erik was about 4, the family moved to Paris, but Jane died 2 years later, in 1872. Erik and his young brother, Conrad, were sent back to Honfluer and lived with their paternal grandparents until their grandmother died in 1878. Alfred then had the children return to him in Paris and home schooled them. Satie lived in Paris during his adulthood. His eccentricities—which included wearing 1 of 7 identical grey suits for 10 years (purchased on receipt of a small inheritance in 1898) and a claim that he only ate food that was white—alienated him from the ‘establishment’. Where during his 20s he’d hung out with the ‘who’s who’ of Paris, in 1898 he moved into the unfashionable working class suburb of Arcueil, living there for 27 years in a small flat. Satie’s work did not catch on for some years, not until long-time friend Claude Debussy made popular his Gymnopedies in 1911, by which time Satie was 45 years old. Erik Satie is now regarded as a significant influence on 20th century music. External Website

Television Shows Towards Zero 2025 In the 2025 BBC adaptation of Agatha Christie's Towards Zero, the character of Audrey Strange, portrayed by Ella Lily Hyland, has a significant backstory as an orphan. Audrey moved to Gull's Point during her childhood after losing her parents, seeking refuge with her aunt, Lady Tressilian. She and Nevile Strange (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), her cousin, developed a complex relationship that evolved from a sibling-like bond into a romantic involvement. Their marriage, however, was fraught with difficulties, leading to a scandalous divorce. The series begins with Audrey's decision to spend a summer at Gull's Point alongside Nevile and his new wife, Kay, setting the stage for unfolding drama and mystery. Another orphan character Sylvia (Grace Doherty) has been expelled from school for thievery and is portrayed as inquisitive. As an outsider, she observes the tensions and conflicts among the guests with a sharp and inquisitive mind. She is the ward of Mr. Treves, also a guest at Gull's Point - a venerable family lawyer. External Website

Authors Q The Market in Babies ➝ Back to Top

Radio & Podcast The indestructible nature of Corey White Corey White 2019 A childhood of abuse and neglect led award-winning Corey White to an unusual place - the stage - via foster care and boarding school. His wit and resilience make his stand-up comedy sharply observed and darkly humorous External Website

Authors M Michelangelo ➝ Yusuf P McCormack ➝ Back to Top

Authors T Alan Turing ➝ Back to Top

Authors E Australian singer ➝ Aboriginal Australian, Singer, songrwriter ➝ Back to Top

Authors U Untamed ➝ Upper Middle Bogan ➝ Unorthodox ➝ Unforgiven ➝ Unforgotten ➝ Until I Kill You ➝ United States of Tara ➝ Under the Bridge ➝ Unbelievable ➝ Unsettled ➝ Back to Top

Films/Videos Auntie Mame 1958 Patrick Dennis, orphaned in 1928 when his father Edwin dies unexpectedly, is placed in the care of his aunt Mame Dennis in Manhattan. Mame is flamboyant and exuberant, hosting frequent parties with a variety of guests and free-spirited friends Mr. Babcock (Fred Clark), Patrick's assigned executor, objects to Mame's unconventional way of living and tries to force her to send Patrick to prep school. As Mame and Patrick grow closer, Mr. Babcock tries to discipline Patrick and threatens to separate the two if Mame does not comply with his wishes. External Website

Actors Jamie Foxx Eric Marlon Bishop (born December 13, 1967), known professionally as Jamie Foxx, is an American actor, singer-songwriter, comedian, television presenter, and record producer. And adoptee, Foxx became widely known for his portrayal of Ray Charles in the 2004 biographical film Ray, for which he won the Academy Award, BAFTA, Screen Actors Guild Award, Critics' Choice Movie Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. That same year, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the crime film Collateral. Since spring 2017, Foxx has served as the host and executive producer of the Fox game show Beat Shazam. Foxx was given his own television sitcom The Jamie Foxx Show, in which he starred, co-created and produced, airing for five highly rated seasons from 1996 to 2001 on The WB Television Network. Foxx is also a Grammy Award-winning musician. External Website

Actors Aaron Pedersen Aaron Pedersen (born 24 November 1970) is an Australian television and film actor of Arrernte and Arabana Australian Aboriginal descent. Aaron and his seven siblings were in and out of foster care in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory as children. Aaron left Alice Springs for Melbourne as a young man after he was accepted to intern at the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC). Pedersen’s acting career began when he starred in Heartland (1994). The following year he co-hosted game show Gladiators Australia and performed the role of Vince Cellini in Wildside in 1997. Aaron Pedersen has played a number of characters in popular Australian television series, including Detective Senior Constable Michael Reilly in Water Rats (1996-2001), Detective Senior Constable Duncan Freeman in City Homicide (2007-2012), Cam Delray in the Jack Irish series (2016-2021), and Detective Jay Swan in Mystery Road (2018, 2020). Aaron is the primary carer for his younger brother, Vincent, who has cerebral palsy. External Website

Television Shows Payback 2023 Payback (2023) is a crime thriller set in Edinburgh. When Lexie Noble’s (Morven Christie) husband is murdered, she gets caught up in an organised crime money-laundering scheme. Lexie becomes a prime suspect for her husband’s murder when the police realise she was convicted of a crime at the age of 15 and locked up in secure care for a time. Lexie insists she did not commit either crime, not the crime she was convicted of nor the current one. External Website

Films/Videos Never Let Me Go (film) 2010 Based on the 2005 novel by Kasuo Ishiguro, the film tells the story of orphan children raised exclusively in a boarding school or children's home and whose task in life is to provide organs for members of the community the children rarely if ever see. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles "Intentional Neglect." On the Creation of Nationalized Child Protection in Victorian England Lit Hub (Montgomery) 2024 In this Lit Hub article, Heather Montgomery explores the beginnings of the child protection system in the UK. She argues that it was during the Victoria era that childhood began to be intensely scrutinized. It was also during the Victorian era when it was decided that if a home did not meet the “middle-class norms of morality and decency” it was “seen as neglectful and the best course of action deemed to be separation from their children.” Montgomery goes on to show that neglect of a child had “become a criminal offence in 1868” although few parents were actually prosecuted. When parents were prosecuted, says Montgomery, “women, and mothers in particular, [were] more likely to be found guilty than men or their middle-class peers, and more likely to receive heavier sentences”. External Website